When was ottawa senators founded

Alfredsson played the —14 season with the Detroit Red Wings before retiring from professional hockey. He spent 17 seasons with the Senators, playing in 1, games and is the franchise leader in goals , assists and points 1, Prior to the start of the —15 season, Erik Karlsson was named captain, the ninth in franchise history. Ottawa faltered early in the season, leading to the dismissal of MacLean in December and the promotion of assistant coach Dave Cameron.

However, the team was eliminated in the Eastern Conference quarter-finals by the Montreal Canadiens. The Senators finished the —16 campaign with 38 wins but allowed the third most goals-against in the league and failed to qualify for the playoffs.

Not long after the season ended, Ottawa dismissed head coach Dave Cameron and later replaced him with Guy Boucher. Ottawa finished the —17 campaign with 44 wins, which was good enough for second place in the Atlantic Division.

In the postseason, the Senators took the Pittsburgh Penguins to seven games in the Eastern Conference final but lost in double overtime. Despite narrowly missing a Stanley Cup Final berth, the Senators struggled the following season, winning only 28 games and finishing seventh in the Atlantic Division in — Early in the season, the Senators acquired centre Matt Duchene from the Colorado Avalanche to bolster their offence and improve their chances at the championship.

The trade was part of a three-team deal that saw Ottawa send goaltender Andrew Hammond to Colorado and centre Kyle Turris to Nashville. Off the ice, owner Eugene Melnyk drew the ire of fans. However, fans were disappointed and Karlsson himself was saddened by the move. National Hockey League The NHL website features the latest league news and statistics, video clips of game highlights, and more.

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Accessed 12 November In The Canadian Encyclopedia. Historica Canada. If not, we will remove the player. Ottawa Senators Team Formation. Ottawa real estate developer Bruce Firestone decided along with colleagues Cyril Leeder and Randy Sexton that Ottawa was now able to support an NHL franchise, and the group proceeded to put a bid together. Read More. See Full Story.

Rod Bryden Takes Control. Canadian Tire Centre Opens. As part of its bid to land an NHL franchise for Ottawa, Terrace Corporation unveiled the original proposal for the arena development at a press conference in September Eugene Melnyk Saves the Day. Senators Primary Logo. Senators Alternate Logo. After losing eight of twelve playoff series, including all four series in five years versus the Leafs, team management felt that a new coach was required for playoff success.

Muckler even suggested that the new coach would have "to fix the dressing room", implying the team was not responding to Martin. He would not actually coach until due to the NHL lockout, instead spending time on scouting.

The Senators like the other NHL teams did not play during the lock-out. Most players chose to play in Europe, although some, like Jason Spezza played for the Senators farm team, the Binghamton Senators. Prior to the lockout, the Senators had acquired free agent goaltender Dominik Hasek. He did not play for any teams during the season, but did practice with Binghamton.

Daniel Alfredsson had a very good season in Sweden, and his club team won the Swedish championship. The NHL season was expected to be a strong season for the Senators. The media predicted the Senators to be Stanley Cup contenders, as they had a strong core back after the lockout, played in an up-tempo style fitting the new rule changes and Hasek was expected to provide top-notch goaltending. The team rushed out of the gate, winning 19 of the first 22 games, in the end winning 52 games and points, placing first in the conference, and second overall.

Forward Dany Heatley netted two consecutive 50 goal seasons in and the following year. Heatley, together with Alfredsson and Spezza, formed one of the league's top offensive lines, [53] dubbed the "CASH line" by fans in a contest held by the Ottawa Citizen. The name is made from the initials of C aptain A lfredsson, S pezza, and H eatley. The line made a dramatic and historic debut, playing in the first game of the season on October 5, , against the Toronto Maple Leafs in Toronto. In the pre-season, right winger Brandon Bochenski had been playing on the line as he had played with Spezza in the AHL during the lock-out.

But with five minutes to go, with the Senators trailing, then Senators' coach Bryan Murray replaced Bochenski with Alfredsson and Alfredsson scored a game-tying goal with 62 seconds left.

Heatley and Alfredsson would then go on to score the first shootout goals in NHL history to win the game that night. Heatley became the first Ottawa Senator in franchise history to reach points on April 13, , recording two assists during a overtime loss to the Florida Panthers and five days later became the first to reach the goal mark. The acquisition of Hasek was ill-fated, as Hasek suffered an adductor muscle injury while playing for the Czech national ice hockey team during the Winter Olympics.

He would not play for the Senators again. Rookie netminder Ray Emery took over the starting goaltender duties and played well helping the team to finish first in the Eastern Conference and the second-best record in the league.

Despite the regular season success, the team entered the playoffs under a cloud as the media was predicting an early Senators demise due to Hasek's absence. The Senators then played the Buffalo Sabres in the second round, a series in which all games were decided by one goal.

The Sabres won the first three, the Senators would win the fourth to stave off elimination, but the fifth would be won by the Sabres. Chara, Hasek and Pothier left as free agents, while Havlat and Smolinski were traded. The Senators' season went off to a poor start, and was marked by a struggle to reach a. Until December, the team had a record; however, they had much more success in the remaining half of the season, eventually finishing second in the division after the President's Trophy -winning Buffalo Sabres and earning the fourth seed in the Eastern Conference.

They ultimately finished with points, their fourth straight point season and sixth in the last eight. Captain Daniel Alfredsson improved his play in the Playoffs , tallying the playoff leading 22 points. In the playoffs, Ottawa's fourth placing in the Conference meant that the first-round playoff series was against the fifth-seeded Pittsburgh Penguins.

Some media were expecting the Penguins to win the series because the Penguins had won the season series, the Senators' past playoff troubles and the strong young talent of the Penguins, including Sidney Crosby.

This was the only series where the Senators were the higher-seeded team. The Senators again won by a score of four games to one. Next, the Senators faced off against the Buffalo Sabres in the Conference Final, looking to get even for losing to the Sabres in the playoffs. Daniel Alfredsson scored the series-winning goal, see video in overtime, redemption for being beaten a year before on the goal that eliminated the Sens from the playoffs. It was also the first series win by the Senators against the Sabres.

Despite the 80 year gap, one fan attended games both the and the Finals. The third game of the series and first home game for Ottawa on June 2, was attended by 99—year old Russell Williams as a guest of the Senators. He had attended the last Finals game in Ottawa on April 13, , played in the old Ottawa Auditorium. Previously, only Americans or Canadians had captained teams in the Finals.

Alfredsson would be one of the bright lights for the Senators in the series, as he had been in all of the playoff series. But he would be one of the few bright lights as Anaheim won the series in five games bolstered by strong defensive play and opportunistic scoring. The first two games were in Anaheim, both won by the Ducks by one goal margins. Game three went to the Senators, but game four in Ottawa was won by the Ducks, for an insurmountable 3 games to 1 lead.

The Ducks would finish the series in game five at home. The Ducks had been favoured to win the Cup since before the season started. The city was swept up in the excitement of being in the finals. A six-story likeness of Daniel Alfredsson was hung on the Corel building [66] and the Senators organization held rallies at City Hall, and car rallies of decorated cars paraded from Lynx stadium, through downtown to Scotiabank Place.

Much like the Red Mile in Calgary during the Flames ' cup run and the Blue Mile in Edmonton during the Oilers ' cup run , Ottawa Senators fans took to the streets to celebrate their team's success. Elgin Street after the Senators Game 3 win. Their idea was to use Elgin Street as a gathering place for Sens fans to celebrate after games won.

Since Scotiabank Place is located in suburban Ottawa, spontaneous celebration did not occur during the Senators' cup run until that point, like it did in cowtown and Edmonton where the arenas are located more centrally. The Senators made major changes in their hockey staff during the off-season. On Sunday, June 17, general manager John Muckler was fired; he had been in the last year of his contract.

Head coach Bryan Murray was promoted to GM. Assistant coach Greg Carvel retained his duties. A major incident occurred in the pre-season game against the Philadelphia Flyers on September Downie was given a match penalty as McAmmond was diagnosed with a concussion, later won by the Senators up by two goals.

Later on the Senators won all 7 of their pre-season games, [75] followed by a five game undefeated streak to begin the regular season. On November 5 , the Ottawa Senators set a franchise record eighth straight win with their victory over the Toronto Maple Leafs. The team colours are red, black and white, like the original era Senators, and like other Ottawa sports teams such as the Ottawa Renegades, Rough Riders and 67s , with added trim of gold. The team's away jersey is mostly white with red and black trim, while the home jersey is red, with white and black trim.

The club logo is officially the head of a Roman general, a member of the Senate of the Roman Empire, [78] projecting from a gold circle.

There have been several versions. The original, unveiled on May 23, , described the general as a "centurian figure, strong and prominent" according to its designer, Tony Milchard. Leaked before its unveiling, the logo design was unpopular with fans, being compared unfavourably to the American Express card, the USC Trojans and the Trojan condom.

This logo was slightly revised in to remove the team name from the gold circle and replace it with laurels. In , the Senators unveiled their alternate logo, taking the head, which had been in profile, and rotating it so that it was face-first. The new logo was unveiled with a new red home jersey, at the start an alternate jersey.

The original dark jersey, then the 'away' jersey which was mostly black, was retired after the season. The red jersey was in use until Starting in July , the Senators reused the alternate logo on another third jersey, designed by Ottawa firm Hoselton Brunet, this one black with red and gold sleeves and a gold stripe with laurel leaves along the bottom of the jersey.

On August 22, , the Senators unveiled a set of new jerseys, which have a more refined, streamlined look to them, [81] designed by Ottawa firm Acart Communications. The team retired all three previous jerseys and will not have a third jersey for the current season. At the same time, the team updated its logos. The new primary logo is an update of the old secondary logo, which according to team owner Eugene Melnyk, "represents strength and determination.

Only the primary logo will appear on the jerseys, as the secondary logo will be on Sens' merchandise. Spartacat, the official mascot of the Senators, is an anthropomorphic lion. He is unable to talk but expresses himself through 'wild gestures' and a 'constant smile'. He appears at all Senators home games and makes special appearances at charity and community events. He made his debut on Senators' opening night October 8, The fans of the Senators are known as the Sens Army.

For the playoff run, more fans then ever before would wear red, and fan activities included 'Red Rallies' of decorated cars, fan rallies at Ottawa City Hall Plaza and the 'Sens Mile' along Elgin Street where fans would congregate. The live music includes the traditional Scottish music of the 'Sons of Scotland Pipe Band' of Ottawa along with highland dancers. On television, home and away games are broadcast on Rogers Sportsnet and A-Channel.

Rogers Sportsnet also broadcasts games into Quebec and the Maritime provinces. National coverage is less frequent; however national broadcasting is usually done by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation CBC , which has increased the number of Senators games broadcast on Hockey Night in Canada in compared to previous seasons.

Several games are only available in video on pay-per-view at local movie theatres in the Ottawa area. The play-by-play for these pay-per-view games are usually done by Dean Brown, often known as "the voice of the Senators," [88] and Gord Wilson with the color commentary.

This started in the season, with a broadcast of a game at Detroit on December 12, On radio, all home and away games are broadcast on a network of local stations in eastern Ontario.

The 'flagship' radio station is the Ottawa station 'Team ', which produces the broadcasts and provides the play-by-play announcers. The Team audio is available over the Internet, and games are simulcast from the NHL main web site. Home attendance in the regular season was ,, with 31 sell-outs out of 41 home dates or an average attendance of 19, This was the second-highest total in Senators's history, after the season total of , and 33 sell-outs.

In the playoffs, the Senators played 9 games with 8 sell-outs and an attendance of , for an average of 20,, the highest in team history. Revenues and income were the team's highest in its history. In , the Senators, in a partnership with the City of Ottawa, built the Bell Sensplex, a four-pad ice facility, for community and team use.

Opened in December , it is used for team practices and minor hockey. The facility is the main arena for the annual Bell Capital Cup , open to 'atom' and 'pee-wee' age group teams, held between Christmas Day and New Year's. The tournament attracts over teams annually and bills itself as "the world's largest hockey tournament. The Senators won the President's Trophy in the —03 season for placing first in the league overall during the regular season.

The team was defeated in the Eastern Conference Final. During the —05 NHL season, the team operated its affiliated teams and office, but the team itself did not play due to the lockout. The team advanced to the Stanley Cup Final in the —07 season but lost in five games.

In —17, the Senators advanced to the Eastern Conference Final again, but lost in the seventh game in double overtime. Statistics above are correct as of the end of the —15 season. Source: Ottawa Senators [99].

Gretzky's sweater number was retired league-wide by the NHL. Source: NHL staff Source: Ottawa Senators staff Ottawa Senators Media Guide Ottawa Senators. Presidents' Trophy []. Prince of Wales Trophy [].